Belonging
by Kegel
Summary: Greg is in San Francisco, Sara is in Las Vegas, and they are both not completely happy with this arrangement. Sara works a lot, on one day too much, which leads to astonishing news for Greg. Sequel to ‘Close distances’. SaraGreg
1. Renewal

**Disclaimer:** I wonder if it would do Greg really good, if I owned CSI and its characters. Doubts coming up there.

**Rating: **K+

**Summary:** Greg is in San Francisco, Sara is in Las Vegas, and they are both not completely happy with this arrangement. Sara works a lot, on one day too much, which leads to astonishing news for Greg. Sequel to 'Close distances'. SaraGreg

**A/N: **Another post from me today thanks to the amazingly fast beta by Emmithar. That will be the last "update" from me for the time being though, as I'm going on vacation and will leave Greg and Sara in peace for a while, a short while admittedly.

**-- **

**Belonging **

**_Chapter 1: Renewal _  
**

Sara heard the ringing of the phone already before she opened the door to her apartment. She entered quickly and marched into her living room, leaving her traveling bag standing near the entrance. Smiling to herself she picked up the phone, having a good idea who it was.

"Hey, Greg," she answered the call, sounding amused.

"You couldn't have known that it would be me," Greg pointed out.

"Who else would call me?" Sara questioned justifiably.

"Work?" Greg suggested.

"No, they'd rather call me on my cell, make sure to reach me even when I'm still on the go and all."

"True," he admitted.

"No, they haven't called yet," Sara ensured him. "I'm still off until tomorrow you know."

Greg chuckled. "Yeah, but has that ever kept them from calling you in on your night off?"

"Not really." What Sara did not tell him was that she was planning to go in to work tonight anyway. She did not see a point in spending the night alone at home. Going to work made much more sense; at least she would be spending the time useful then.

"I miss you," Greg said now. Sara laughed.

"I left just this morning," she pointed out. She had just arrived back from visiting Greg in San Francisco where he was working since he had quit in Las Vegas a couple of months ago.

"Too long," Greg argued, but Sara could tell that he was smiling.

"I'll come again in some weeks," she promised. "I have still a lot of vacation time saved up."

"I know." Greg laughed. "You never took a day off when I was still working over there."

Sara frowned, although she knew that Greg could not see it of course.

"And now you're frowning," he continued quickly. "But are breaking into a smile right now, aren't you?" he added. Sara laughed again, as Greg had been completely right.

"You're not much better with taking time off," she carried their discussion on.

"True. Do you remember the times when we both maxed out on OT?"

Sara grimaced. "Yeah." Then she sighed. "I miss working with you."

"So do I."

"You know what I forgot to tell you?"

"What?" Greg sounded curious.

"Catherine's the supervisor of days since this week."

"Wow, finally, this is what she wanted all the time," he was impressed. "Why now?"

Sara sat down on her couch, having been standing so far.

"Well, Ecklie wasn't exactly finished with his reforms after you left," she started to explain. Greg had not gone completely voluntarily. Ecklie had held the opinion that there was too much staff at the graveyard shift and that somebody would have to go. Sara had thought for a while that it would be her, since she had been standing on Ecklie's to-go-list anyway, but then Greg had quit surprisingly. He had claimed that he had not done it for Sara's sake but because he wanted to start somewhere new where he would maybe be seen as a newbie, but not as the former lab rat that was still often not really involved in cases like he had felt it to be at the Las Vegas crime lab.

"So when the swing shift supervisor left, he moved the supervisor of days to swing shift, along with another CSI, and made Catherine supervisor of days," Sara continued.

Greg chuckled. "She is on good terms with Ecklie right now, huh?"

"Yeah, but it's not as bad as it sounds," Sara ensured him. "And Ecklie's happy now that we're evenly and economically distributed as he likes to call it." She shook her head, once again although Greg could not see it. "There are three investigators at days, four at swing shift and four at graveyard." She laughed again. "Ecklie thinks it's great. We think we have a problem."

"Come on, Grissom has Warrick, Nick and you," Greg argued. "He's way better off than when Cath, Nick and Rick - I can rhyme - were at swings."

Sara frowned again. "Why?"

"Back then he had Sofia, you and, well, me."

"Greg, you did a good job. How often do I have to tell you that?"

Greg laughed nervously. "I just felt often kinda stupid. Part of the reason why I left, you know."

"Grissom isn't exactly generous with praise," Sara admitted. "But do you remember when he once said we two were making him superfluous?"

"Yeah."

"We were a good team, Greg."

"I know," he said quietly. Sara was silent. She felt some melancholy hanging between them and was trying to think of something to say to lift the mood again. Holding the phone still to her ear, she stood up, making her way into the kitchen in order to brew some coffee that she would need definitely if she wanted to get through the next night working.

"We're still a good team," Greg said now, more cheerful. "Even though it's not at work anymore."

"Yeah, you're right." Sara smiled, starting the coffee machine.

"I'll call you later," Greg sounded impishly now. "I'll give you some time to nap now. You'll need it, if you go in to work tonight," he said with a knowing undertone.

Sara grinned. "How do you want to know what I'll be doing tonight?"

"I know you," Greg replied simply. "Good night," he added. "I love you."

Sara did not understand why she was still hesitating at this point.

"I love you, too," she said finally. She could hear in the short bye he said that Greg was grinning, before he shut off the call. Sara smiled to herself while she laid down the phone, watching the coffee brew in the machine for a moment.

She was not exactly planning on following Greg's advice to take a nap before work, but went to clean out her traveling bag instead. She put her dirty clothes into the washing machine and then went out to pick her mail up from her mailbox. She opened the few letters she had received quickly, sitting down on her desk to read them. Once she was finished, she realized that the coffee had probably been ready since long but somehow she felt too lazy to go and get some. It was reluctantly that she laid her head on her arms on her desk, drifting off to a nap after all. The ringing of a phone woke her up. It was not the home phone that was still lying in the kitchen, but her cell phone, so Sara guessed directly that it was work.

"Hello," she said, noticing that she sounded tired.

"Hey, Sara. Are you at home?" her boss wanted to know. Sara could have told him no. He knew very well that she had been out of town to visit Greg; she could theoretically still be on the go, but she realized that she would not be able to lie to him, and she had had planned to go in to work anyway, hadn't she?

"Yeah, I'm at home," she replied.

"Can you-," Grissom started.

"Yeah, I can."

"We have a double in Henderson. I'll give you the address."

"A solo?" Sara asked.

"Yeah. We're a bit shorthanded, you know…"

"Yeah, I know," Sara admitted. That would be one long shift, if she had to work a double homicide alone. And that on her night off. That was really a nice welcome back. Not that she had actually planned anything differently.

**TBC **


	2. Restless

_Sorry for the long time it took me to update this… (I hope you can still remember the story). And it will probably be the last update on any of my stories for the time being, as I'm moving to another federal state this weekend and once I'm at my new place I'll have to get phone and internet set up… wonder how long that company will need. lol_

_Thanks to Emmithar for the beta!_

* * *

**Chapter 2 - Restless**

Sara threw a glance into the room and seeing that it was empty she moved into it quickly, closing the door behind her carefully.

The lab was quiet at this time of the day; it was already well into swing shift and its investigators were all out on scenes, the techs working busy in the labs. Sara was the only one of her shift who was still around; even Grissom had left by now.

Sara, however, was still at the lab, sitting down at a table now, her phone in her hand, pressing the speed dial button she used almost every day, apart from the days when Greg was the one who called first.

"Hey," Greg picked up the call cheerfully, knowing that it was her.

"Hey," she returned.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine, Greg."

"You're already awake," he half-stated, half-asked.

"I'm at the lab," she admitted, wondering at the same time why it actually felt like an admission to her. Greg had often worked long hours as well, and it was not a bad thing, was it?

"You have to be tired," Greg stated now.

"I slept…" Sara stated. "It was some time yesterday, wasn't it?" she added doubting.

"When was the last day you had off?" Greg inquired further.

"When I visited you of course."

"That's more than two weeks ago," he pointed out.

"I know," she sighed. Greg was silent for a moment.

"You weren't even that bad when I was still in Vegas," he said then, sounding as if he tried to appear rather amused than worried. "You slept sometimes…"

Sara bit on her lip. "That was when you were still here like you said." She knew that it sounded pathetic, but still she continued, "I don't have as many friends as you, somebody to hang out with…"

Greg laughed to her surprise, but she thought she heard some bitterness in the laugh.

"That was when I had still a regular schedule, was working normal hours," he contradicted.

"That is long ago," Sara said quietly.

"Yeah."

"And it's just like that for me." For her it was probably even more so. Greg was still somewhat another case.

"What's with your co-workers? They work the same hours," he suggested.

"Hanging out with Grissom? Try again," Sara smirked.

"Nick? Warrick?"

"Warrick's a married man," Sara pointed out, realizing that it sounded as if she was searching for lame excuses.

"Will you go home then?" Greg was asking now, dropping the previous topic. Sara knew that he would not try to press her to anything, even if he was of another opinion.

"I'll leave soon," she promised.

"Good," Greg replied briefly.

"Well…" Sara said undecidedly, waiting for Greg to say something.

She sighed inwardly, frustrated. They had reached a dead end here. She did not really want Greg to tell her any more about what she needed to do, and Greg apparently did not want to press her anymore either, and neither did he want to hold her back any longer from going home.

"Just call me tonight when you had a good day's sleep," he asked her now.

"Okay." Sara guessed that Greg was smiling a weak smile now that she could not see. It was what he was usually doing in a situation like this.

"I love you."

"I love you too," Sara returned quietly, a moment before Greg shut off the call on the other side.

She felt even more tired now than before. As uplifting as a conversation with Greg usually was, it had not been this time, and she felt that it was her fault. Realizing that it was pointless to dwell on it any longer, she knew that she would do exactly this the whole day.

Pointless seemed as well to stay any longer at the lab. She did not even have the drive to do anything more. Looking at her watch she realized that she had even worked several hours longer than a double shift again. Her regular shift would already start in few hours, Greg's good day of sleep was not possible anymore.

Sara strode down the hall, for the most part ignoring the swing shift employees she met on the way. She clocked out at the reception, but after she had retrieved some unhealthy stuff from the vending machine she retreated into the empty break room.

Taking some bits of a chocolate bar listlessly, she sat down on the couch. It was less than five hours before shift would start, there was really not a point in leaving. Sara threw the half-eaten bar into the trash can, making herself then somewhat comfortable on the couch. She knew she was being unreasonable, but could not come up with a good reason why she should go home into her empty apartment, when shift was going to start again soon anyway.

The good thing was, with all the overtime she was putting in and the fact that she hardly took a day off, she would soon be able again to take a few days off in a row to go over to Greg again.

She actually managed to fall asleep for some time, and as far as she could tell nobody had noticed her lying in the break room. If somebody had entered the room, she likely would have woken up, she was not sleeping very deeply.

When she woke up again, it was only one hour before midnight. She sat up groggily, feeling nauseated. Hardly eating anything had not been a good idea. But only the thought of food made her feel even worse now, so eating some of the stuff she had bought some hours ago and that were still lying on the table was out of question.

Instead Sara made her way to the locker room, hoping to find a change of clothes in her locker. Chances were that there was not any, since it was not exactly the first time in the last two weeks that she had stayed at the lab. Surprisingly she still found a set of clothes, so she washed and changed quickly.

What a bad idea it had exactly been to not eat properly found she out, when her stomach revolted while she was trying to bring her hair in order in the restroom. Weakly on her legs, she stumbled into a stall, still managing to close the door behind her. She gagged, but there was not anything to throw up, so she felt only the stomach acid coming up in her gullet.

She had not even felt the tears that had come up, but wiped them away, when she was leaning over the sink again. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw that she was pale. No surprise there.

Sara thought that she had not felt as bad as now in a long time. It was now that she remembered that she had promised Greg to give him a call. It was short before midnight and since Greg was working dayshift in San Francisco he would probably be sleeping now. On the other hand he would likely want to be woken up by her calling; he would definitely prefer it over her not calling at all.

Figuring that a few minutes sooner or later did not matter anymore, and that she did not feel in any state to face Greg's possible questions, Sara strode to the exit instead, glad that she did not meet anybody on her way there.

Feeling slightly better than before, now that she had caught some fresh air, Sara dialed Greg's number on her way back into the lab.

"Hey," he answered the call, sounding sleepily. "You're late."

"Yeah, sorry about that," she apologized, regretting it somewhat that she had obviously woken him.

"It's alright. I wouldn't want to miss out a call from you," Greg smiled.

"I don't have much time. I'm just on my way to the pre-shift meeting." He did not need to know that she had been at the lab the whole day. "Did you have a good day?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah, it was quite good. I met with some people from shift for dinner, we hang out a bit…"

"That's good," Sara smiled weakly.

"Would've been better if you'd been there," Greg returned pitifully.

"Greg…"

"I know," he answered. "It doesn't help if I tell you every day that I would want you to be here, that I wish we'd be together. It doesn't change anything, we have to manage how it is now, and maybe one day…" he rambled. Sara moved into the room she had just been walking by, leaning against the wall next to the door, hoping nobody would see her and the emotions that were rushing over her.

"Maybe it would've been better if I had stayed in Vegas," Greg continued quietly now. "I could've gotten another job…"

"You've worked too hard to get where you are now to just give up on it," Sara reminded him.

"Yeah, but work isn't that important to me. It is important, yeah, but you're more, you know."

Sara nodded quietly, realizing only after a moment that Greg was not able to see her, adding a quiet agreeing sound then. She did not know if she could have said the same about herself. Greg was important to her, of course. But so was her job and the position she had worked for.

The question after the choice between Greg and her work was not really there for her. If she chose her job, Greg would still be there. It was not some kind of life-or-death decision. It was not a one or the other choice. She could have both; it was not even a decision against Greg if she put more emphasis on her work, especially now that he lived hundreds of miles away.

"I'm only talking about me," Greg stated now. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," she answered. It was a robot-like answer. And she could not really hear that word herself anymore. She knew she was not fine, no matter how much she pretended to be to herself. She had seldom felt as sick as she did now. She was not fine, neither emotionally nor physically.

And while Greg probably sensed the first, he did not need to know of the latter.

**TBC**


	3. Realize

_A/N: I'm sorry that this has taken me forever to update. I hope you're still reading and enjoying this fic. _

_And I'd like to "bring back Greg" too :D _

_Thanks to Emmithar for the beta!_

* * *

**Chapter 3: Realize**

If Sara had thought the last night had been bad, she was being taught a lesson this night. After working a double shift she had fallen into bed like dead, feeling as if she had just fallen asleep when her alarm clock announced that it was already time for getting up again before the next shift started.

The thought that was running through her head, while she was lying woken up by the unnerving sound of the alarm clock in the darkness, was only that it could not be real that she had to get up again and go into the lab. She needed sleep badly. However, she did not consider it as an option to call in and inform the lab that she would not come.

Sara groaned into her pillow. She had not even talked to Greg since before her shift the last night. She had tried calling him twice, after she had been off from work, but he had not answered her call, and she assumed he had been working overtime as well. Or he was having fun with his co-workers, so that he did not even notice his cell phone ringing, or singing, whatever was currently the case.

Sara forced herself out of bed, walking shakily into the bathroom. She avoided the mirror completely; it would be enough if she shocked her co-workers later; she did not need that picture herself.

Eating something would have been wise, as she had realized far too clearly last night, but it was out of question, as she had no idea how she was supposed to swallow anything.

At the pre-shift meeting she slumped down onto a chair as far away from her co-workers as possible, hoping they would not notice her state, knowing that it was ridiculous and pointless. Well, if they questioned her, she could at least claim that she wanted to avoid them catching the germs she was carrying around. Whatever these germs were, Sara felt horrible.

Even Grissom appeared clearly stressed, when he arrived in the room. He did not bother making any introduction but handed Nick two slips of paper without even acknowledging Warrick and Sara.

"Two scenes at once?" Nick asked unbelieving. "And that solo?"

"You're a CSI 3, you can do that," Grissom declared indifferently. "Sara, here are two for you," he handed her two slips, "and Warrick, two for you." All three looked at their boss incredulously.

"Why-?" Sara started, despite that she did not feel as if she had any energy to discuss anything out. She looked at her boss tiredly.

"We're swamped," Grissom interrupted her. "You know that graveyard is actually short staffed."

"Hire somebody," Sara muttered under her breath, having a clear suggestion for a candidate in her mind. Grissom ignored her, or maybe he just had not heard her.

"We can't go on like this forever," Nick pointed out, still not looking too happy. Grissom frowned.

"You'll have to discuss this with Ecklie. I want our work to get done, okay?" he clarified. It was not the first time this discussion had risen, but since dayshift was even one investigator less than them, it was out of question that they would get somebody new, if the lab hired somebody at all. And the fact that Ecklie had thought they could do easily with less people had caused Greg to leave after all.

Grissom was therefore not inclined to discuss anything in this direction, mainly concerned that all of their cases would still be covered as carefully as necessary. He had not even said anything against Sara's excessive amount of working overtime lately; in a way he was almost promoting it, calling her in even when she had just arrived home, she always being the first to be tried.

Sara spend a long, tiring, miserable night at the two scenes, unable to remember in the morning how she had even made it through the night, somewhere in the back of her mind happy that she had not puked on any of the scenes, contaminating evidence for good.

When she walked shakily back into the lab, even Sara had to admit that she was sick, and that she could not try to ignore it any longer. She saw Warrick coming from the other direction and saw him smiling faintly, and his mouth moving. This was almost the only way though that she could tell that he talking, his voice being only a distant sound at the edge of her consciousness.

His expression seemed to change to worry for a moment, but Sara only caught a glance of that, before she did not see anything anymore, her vision having gone black, her mind still clinging to consciousness, even though she was already wishing to faint completely, simply hoping to not feel the misery anymore.

What felt to Sara like a stretch of time was actually only a moment, before Warrick saw her falling on the floor suddenly, hastening forward, hoping to catch her, but failing, when she slumped down in front of his arms.

* * *

Greg rolled to his other side. His digital clock on the bedside table had just told that there was still plenty of time left to sleep. His shift would not start before eight in the morning and since he had the luck to not live too far away from the lab, he could still get a fair amount of sleep.

It had taken him a while to get used to sleeping at nights again and working at days, but now it was just as normal as it had been in Las Vegas to work at night and sleep during the day.

In the city he had settled in pretty quickly. He had used to live here several years ago after all. There were some things, some places and ways he had to retrieve from his memory, and when he wandered along a street and remembered back to the time when he used to live in the city, he felt that time to be incredibly long ago. At first he thought that it was not that long ago after all, only to realize that it were already many years. But it was especially his life that had changed so much since then that he could almost doubt that he was still the same person.

He had settled in fairly well, work was going well, but Greg still wondered, if it had not been a mistake to leave Las Vegas, even though it had not been completely voluntarily. From there it had appeared easier to hold up his relationship with Sara; they had not thought it would be so difficult. Or maybe it was just Greg who had thought that; Sara had not really liked the idea of him moving to San Francisco from the very first moment when he had told her about it. Then she had fully supported him though.

And what Greg had thought was that they had often not seen much of each other during a day anyway, unless they had worked together on a case, work determining the greatest part of their daily lives. So what was the big difference now?

They still spend a lot of time working, Sara probably more than she admitted, Greg feared. Greg could still spend his little free time like he had done in Las Vegas, and Sara probably just slept and worked; there was not anything new either, even though Greg did not like the idea.

And then they could talk on the phone, something they did almost daily, often more than once a day. Only when both of them were stuck deep in work it happened that they did not get to talk to each other. But it was not the same like living together of course. Even though they had always had little time to spend together outside of work, there had been some at least.

Now every comfort was missing. The comfort of coming home and not being alone, the comfort of sharing a bed at night; and of seeing each other daily. Greg just could not live off those few days Sara had come over to him.

In a way he was still pretending to her that he thought everything was going fine, apart from his lapse the other night maybe. He had noticed that Sara had been in low spirits as well; he just did not know where it had resulted from, if it been because of the state their relationship was in. Although their relationship was actually fine. It were only the circumstances that were nagging on it and Greg wondered how long it would go undamaged.

She had not called him that day, not even that night so far. It was not the first time, but Greg still was not really able to suppress the disappointment that the he had missed the one thing they could still share during their daily life.

Somehow it was a sad fact that they were not really part of each other's normal life anymore. Was not that what constituted a relationship? That they spend good and bad times together? What if they did not spend any time together at all? Was that still a relationship? He loved her, and as far as he could tell, she loved him. Was that enough?

Greg tried to stop his running thoughts, rolling around again, turning to the other side of his – as he felt it – empty bed. Cuddling into his pillow, he closed his eyes again, falling into a childlike imagination that Sara was there next to him, hoping to be able to fall asleep again.

His cell phone started ringing already the next moment and Greg was quickly out of bed. It could only be Sara who was calling at this time, and Greg was smiling to himself in anticipation. It was probably the first break she was taking tonight and maybe she just had not paid attention to the time, but Greg did not care if she was calling at day or at 4 AM, as long as he got to talk with her.

"Hey," he greeted her, when he answered the call, his cheerfulness a little subdued due to his tiredness.

"Greg?" It was not the voice Greg had expected. It was another voice he knew from the Las Vegas crime lab though.

"Warrick, what's going on?" he wondered, unable to come up with an explanation that Warrick was calling him at that time, or rather calling him at all, it was not like they usually did that.

"Greg-"

An uneasy feeling settled in Greg's stomach. Closing his eyes, he asked quietly, "What has happened?"

Warrick did not hesitate to answer, even though he had maybe wanted to.

"It's Sara."

**TBC**


	4. Reaching

**_Thanks to all who are still sticking with this story and double thanks for betareading to Emmithar. :D_**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Reaching**

Greg had immediately called in to work that he would not come in today, and probably not the next couple of days either. His boss had been understanding when Greg had explained the situation.

While he was packing some things, hurrying then out of his apartment to his car, Greg repeatedly recalled what Warrick had told him. He had explained that Sara had passed out at work, after she had been appearing sick for the last few days which had been attributed to overwork at first. Since it had seemed serious, somebody had called an ambulance and Sara had been brought to the hospital.

That had happened half an hour before Warrick had called Greg. There had apparently been a disagreement between his co-workers, former co-workers that was, whether they should inform Greg or not before they knew what was wrong with Sara and if it was really serious. Catherine had then obviously urged Warrick to call Greg.

The music was blaring maybe a bit too loud in his car, when he reached the freeway, but he had to try to get his thoughts somehow away from the worry, at least so much to be able to concentrate on driving. It would help neither of them, if he crashed his car on the way to Las Vegas.

Greg had noticed that Sara was not completely fine, as she had claimed to be, the last couple of times they had talked on the phone. But just like his former co-workers he had thought that Sara was simply working too much. As long as she ate and slept from time to time nothing bad should happen.

Greg shook his head slightly. That was not what he should be thinking about. He should stay positive and just concentrate on getting to Vegas.

It was when he had still more than five hours to go, when his cell phone that was lying on the passenger's seat started buzzing. Greg breathed out slowly before he reached out to pick up the call.

"Hey."

"Hey, Greg," Catherine's voice blared in his ear.

"Cath, what's up?" he asked alarmed.

"I just want you to know that Sara's going to be alright. It would be good, if you still came over though."

"Of course," Greg assured her relieved.

"I have to get to work now, but I'll see you tonight," Catherine stated half-questioningly, Greg remembering that she was working dayshift now.

"Yeah, I'll be there," Greg smiled, and Catherine shut off the call. Greg dropped the phone back onto the passenger's seat. He was relieved, having heard the good news. Now he just had to make it to Vegas and they would be fine; he would even be seeing Sara again much earlier than he had been hoping for.

* * *

Greg had been directed to Sara's room, and when he was approaching it, he could see the door of it standing open. He saw how Sara was signing some sheet of paper, before a woman was taking it and left the room. Greg strode into the room the moment she was out, and Sara looked up to him.

"Hey," he smiled at her broadly, happy to see her. He hugged her and kissed her briefly, before Sara sank down on the bed behind her. She looked down at the floor and Greg wondered what was wrong, remembering only now, after he had forgotten it in the first moment of joy to see her again, that he had not even asked yet what was wrong, why she was at the hospital.

"What's wrong?" he questioned concerned, moving his arms down her back. Sara did not answer and the worry was increasing in Greg. Had Catherine not said Sara was going to be alright? So what was so terrible wrong that she did not want to tell him? Had Catherine been falsely assuming Sara was going to be fine?

Greg sat down on the bed next to her, laying his arm around her shoulder.

"Just tell me," he pleaded.

Sara turned to Greg and hugged him.

"I'm pregnant," she whispered into his ear. She sniffed quietly and Greg freed himself from her embrace, looking at her.

He smiled broadly. "That's great. We're going to have a baby together," he said happily. Sara on the opposite did not look happy.

"Why did you pass out at the lab? Is everything okay with the baby?" Greg asked in a sudden worry, remembering why he had been called in the first place.

"Doctors say it was just all too much at once… too much work, too little sleep, too little food and then the pregnancy…" Sara narrated. "Told me something about taking it slow." She managed a forced smile. "Do you really think that it's great?"

Greg nodded, but Sara continued, "I just don't know how I'm going to do it… I mean it's going to be like I'm a single mother…"

Greg could see the desperation in Sara's expression and hear it in her voice. She was clearly scared. He could imagine that. Sara was not convinced that she would be a good mother, and the prospect of having to do it on her own only aggravated it.

"I'm here, too," he contradicted earnestly.

"You're in San Francisco," Sara replied bitterly, and it was the most bitterness he had ever heard from her about that matter. That Sara was not happy with him moving there, even though she had supported him for work-related reasons, he had known, but all her real dislike for it sounded through now, understandable for the situation she was in, they were in.

"We're going to find a solution," he assured her, his smile returning. "We have several months time to work something out after all." They would find a way, Greg was sure of that. He was too happy right now to not be optimistic.

Sara nodded. She was in her normal clothes, so Greg figured she would be able to go home. He embraced her briefly again, before he slipped from the bed, taking her hand.

"Let's go home."

Sara stood up as well. "I could move over to yours, and stay at home with the baby," she suggested suddenly. Greg lifted his eyebrows, while they were walking out of the hospital room. Then he shook his head, smiling.

"You wouldn't want that, I know that."

"Yeah, you're right," Sara admitted, smiling faintly.

"You'd go crazy, if you had nothing to do," Greg stated, letting go of her hand and laying his arm around her shoulder instead.

"Let's go home," Sara said contently, knowing Greg would be there at least for tonight.

* * *

Sara had fallen asleep quickly in her bed, actually even before Greg had been there as well. When she woke up again, she could feel something warm lying over her. She reached up and let her hand wander through his hair, his head nestled next to her shoulder.

She closed her eyes again, enjoying that he was there for once. It was some minutes later that she felt him moving. She opened her eyes and found him looking down at her.

"You were already sleeping when I was done in the kitchen," he told her smiling, a soft complain in his voice.

"There's no need for us to rush making babies," Sara teased him lightly. "We're already getting one."

Greg's smile widened. "I know." He leaned down, delving into a kiss, stroking through her hair with one hand. He reached down and stroked her belly softly, grinning at her happily, before he bent down for another kiss, closing his eyes.

Ready for another hour or two of sleep he cuddled up to Sara again, but before he had really fallen asleep he heard a strange sound coming from her, it sounded almost like a sniffle.

He opened his eyes wondering and had to lift himself onto his arms to see Sara's face since she had turned to look away from him. It was wet and he reached out to touch her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he whispered.

"Nothing," Sara replied, apparently surprised that he was awake.

"Why are you crying?" Greg asked softly.

Sara rubbed her eyes how, grimacing lightly. "I'm just…" She shrugged. "I'm fine. I'm happy, really. Happy and scared," she added, sniffing another time, drying her face with the sleeve of her pajamas. "I'm going to be a horrible mom," she stated. "And you…"

"I intend to be around," Greg reminded her, pulling her carefully around to him.

"That's good," Sara smiled, sniffing again. "I wish I wasn't so-"

"It's alright," Greg ensured her, lying down again, smiling.

"It's just the hormones."

"Yeah."

**TBC**


	5. Responses

_**A/N: Yay, an update of this story. I have never forgotten about it, but it was always shoved into the back row. But here we go again. **__**lol**_

* * *

**Chapter 5****: Responses**

Sara shoved the papers aside, leaning back in her chair and stretching her tired legs. She had not even been standing for long during the night, mainly sitting here instead, and still her legs felt tired.

Sara looked down at the small swelling of her belly. Ever since this had been visible (and Sara had tried to hide it as well as possible, knowing what was to come when somebody saw it), Grissom had forbidden her to work in the field. Obviously he thought her more than vulnerable now.

Sara sighed. Until this thing was over, she would have forgotten how a crime scene looked in real. And she had to remember that when this whole pregnancy thing was over, it would only really start.

And how it would start. With Greg back in San Francisco, Sara really wondered how that was supposed to work. No matter how often he had assured her that they would find a solution, that he would be around, right now he was not, and somehow Sara was not able to believe that this would change. At the end she would be alone after all.

She sighed again, laying her head onto her hands on the table. She hoped that it was just her condition that was making her so pessimistic. She wanted to be in the field. She did not like being confined to the lab. She wanted to be at home, she was tired and needed rest. She wanted Greg to call her, they needed to talk.

But when she lifted her head and her glance went to the door, she noticed what she definitely did not want.

"Hey, Conrad," she said, trying to sound upbeat.

"Sara," he nodded.

"What's wrong?" she wanted to know, moving to sit in a normal position again, not taking her eyes of Ecklie though.

Ecklie's gaze did not leave her either. "Why would you think anything wrong?" he returned the question. Somehow Sara did not feel up to this.

"Just wondering," she shrugged. She finally looked away from him and down at the papers on the table. Reaching for her pen, she intended continuing filling a form, when Ecklie's voice interrupted her.

"What are you doing?"

Sara looked up again, a slight frown on her face. "Since nothing's wrong, I thought I could just continue working…"

Ecklie almost looked as if he was contemplating this. "We don't want you to overwork yourself," he said suddenly and Sara frowned. Why did she feel like she was walking on eggs?

"Don't worry about me," she returned carefully, wondering what his intentions were. Technically he was not allowed to come down hard on her for anything relating to her pregnancy, so she did not know where this was going. Okay, technically.

"If you need time off, shorter hours, we can certainly make an arrangement," Ecklie went on, when Sara had just been about to take her look away from him again. "We don't want any evidence mix-ups to happen again, just because you're not feeling well enough to focus on your work."

Sara frowned deeper. "I don't need time off." There had certainly been no indications that she did. She could not work in the field right now, but in the lab she had done her work just as well as she had always performed.

Of course she could understand Ecklie that he did not want that it happened again that she mixed up a bag of evidence, like it had occurred several months ago, right before Greg had left. But that had been during a fire-drill when both she had Nick had been in more than a hurry, even though that was not a good excuse for it either.

She did not like thinking of that and therefore shoved those memories aside, looking at Ecklie sternly.

"I don't need time off," she repeated. "I'm fine and I'd really like to finish this report for Grissom." She really wanted to complete it, even more so because it was time for her break then. She hated feeling so tired.

Ecklie nodded and finally left. Sara almost breathed a sigh of relief. She was not feeling like dealing with him right now. Not when she was in this pessimistic state of mind. At least she was not having her sentimental phase right now. That one would probably come when she would be talking to Greg later.

He called her even more often than he had used to, before she had become pregnant. His worry was both getting on her nerves and assuring at the same time. She wanted him to be back in Vegas.

While she had always been sure that she would handle being alone without any problems, with Greg working in San Francisco, this was not the case now, especially because she would not exactly be alone. She certainly could take care of herself alone, but would she be able to take care of a child alone? She thought that Greg was the way better person for that.

Sara was glad when she was done with the report. She looked at her watch. 5 PM. It was still too early to call Greg. Maybe she should better take her break later, so that she would catch him after he woke up, but before he went to work. She stood up, her legs cramping. This was not a good night.

Trying to brush it off, she made her way to Grissom's office. She could give him the report just as well now, postponing her break a bit. Grissom was not there though, so she dropped the paper on his desk where it joined a pile of other sheets. For the first second she thought it was Grissom's phone that was ringing, but it was her own one that was going off loudly into the quietness of her boss' office now.

Sara picked it up quickly, glancing briefly on the ID, assuring that it was indeed Greg.

"Hey, you're up early."

Greg chuckled. "I woke up and thought of you. I can just as well use the time to talk to you."

"You'll be tired," she warned him.

"Nah, it's not that early. I would've gotten up soon anyway," he told her chipper. "How are you doing?"

Sara smiled slightly. "Just like the three times I answered you that question yesterday… I'm fine."

"That's good to know," Greg returned, sounding not completely convinced. "You aren't feeling tired or nauseous or-"

"I'm a bit tired, yes," Sara interrupted him. "But that's normal. I'm really doing okay, Greg." And she would do even better if they finally found a solution. If she finally knew that she would not have to deal with this alone. But she would not start with that again now. It was worse enough that she had told him her worries, sobbing, already several times, both when he had been here and on the phone. She could not let that happen again.

"Okay," Greg said slowly. Sara wanted to ask him what they were going to do. But had she not just resolved on not starting with this topic again? She wanted to ask him something, if only to talk about anything else. The first thing that came to her mind though, was to ask how his work was going. It would be a stupid question; he had told her about it last night and had not even been to work today yet.

"So, how are you doing?" she wanted to know instead.

"Are we going to get anywhere beyond that?" Greg returned, sounding somewhat amused. "I'm fine," he added. "I miss you."

"We talk every day," she reminded him. "Several times usually."

Sara did not even really know later about what they were talking. Maybe she had really been way too tired. She did not start about her worries of being alone again, she did not mention Ecklie, she did not tell Greg again that she hated only working in the lab. Greg talked plenty, certainly making up for it. It was nice though; it always relaxed her to hear him talking.

Later in the morning Sara was on her way out of the lab. She certainly did not argue to stay longer nowadays. She would be happy, once she was able to crash into her bed. When she walked out of the exit, Sara almost collided with an incoming person, having not really paid attention.

The blonde woman quickly went to the side though and Sara stopped.

"Hey. Sara." The blonde smiled. Sara returned a tired smile. Catherine stepped out of the door again, Sara following her behind, making the way free for any other people who wanted to leave or enter the building.

"How are you?" the blonde asked, before Sara had even opened her mouth for at least a greeting.

"I'm fine," she smiled. "Bit tired," she added, if only as a hint that she was not up for a long conversation.

"How's Greg doing?" Catherine went on, probably suspecting that he and Sara had talked earlier.

"He's alright, too," Sara replied, shrugging slightly.

Catherine nodded. "I don't want to hold you off any longer. You're tired," she stated.

"Yeah," Sara muttered quietly, about to walk past the other woman, her car already in her sight at the other end of the parking lot, her mind almost in bed.

"I just want to tell you that we'll find a solution, don't worry," Catherine said suddenly, and Sara nodded only tiredly, wondering on her walk to her car if Catherine had just actually said that and if this was the case, what exactly she had been talking of.

**TBC**


	6. Reality

_**A/N: **__Welcome back to this story that had its first birthday by now. Happy birthday, story! Funnily this story is part of my "I could let Greg be happy… from time to time maybe?" series and it seems that I have trouble writing happiness for Greg lol, when you look at the long time it took me to write this story. It is not even a very long story, as this is already the last chapter (already meant in a chapter-wise sense, not in an "I needed only like a year for it" sense). Anyway, if you liked this fic, you can have a look at my other stories that are usually updated on a more regular basis. Thanks for reading! _

_ Kegel_

* * *

**Chapter 6****: Reality**

Her cell phone was ringing. It was lying on the small table next to the couch and Sara was in no mood to reach over and pick it up. The phone did not stop ringing though, so she leaned over to the table groaning slightly, and answered the call.

"Grissom, I certainly won't come in," she said at once, knowing it was him from the caller's ID.

"You were hoping I was going to ask you to come in, didn't you?" Grissom returned, obviously thinking he was able to read her thoughts for she had not been very happy to stay at home the last few days now that the pregnancy was coming to an end.

"Actually not," she stated clearly. "I'm just waiting for Greg to get his act together so that he can take me to the hospital." She was now certainly curious for Grissom's reaction.

"Oh, is it so far already?" he wanted to know.

"Yeah, Grissom it is," Sara returned patiently. "It was why you didn't allow me to be at the lab lately, remember?"

Grissom's response came after a few moments. "Are you going to be alright?"

Sara smiled slightly. "I guess." She looked into the direction of the bathroom where Greg had vanished into a few minutes earlier. "You should more worry about Greg I think. I'm not quite sure he's not going to hyperventilate." At this moment Greg emerged out of the bathroom, looking even more excited than he had before.

"Well, Greg's coming, so I'll talk to you later," she told Grissom.

"I hope everything going alright," Grissom said quickly.

"It will," Sara replied, before she ended the call, looking up to Greg then. "Are you ready?" she asked him.

"Sure," he returned, whirling around to get her jacket. Sara stood up arduously, while Greg returned with both their jackets. He handed her hers and as soon as she had put it on, he took her hand, smiling, and they walked out of the apartment.

If she had not been hurting so much, Sara would have insisted that she was driving, for Greg's excitement did not really calm his driving style or Sara's nerves. As soon as she remarked on that though and assured him that there was no need to break the world record in getting to the hospital, Greg settled down a bit and drove more slowly. For the rest of the drive Sara did not notice very much around her as she was too busy focusing and not-focusing on what was going on inside her, and what wanted out.

Once Greg parked the car, she looked over to him, seeing his by now strained expression. It was probably no comparison to how she was looking.

* * *

Catherine would not even have known, had she not half-way beaten it out of Grissom to tell her that it was so far. When she came to the lab in the morning, Grissom had still been there. This was no surprise by itself, he usually was. But even under Grissom's usual quiet demeanor she could make out excitement and her first idea what the cause of it was, had proved to be right, once she had convinced him to finally open his mouth and tell her that Sara and Greg had gone to the hospital.

She looked at her watch and realized that she would have to get to work, despite her curiousness.

"Tell me when there's any news," she asked Grissom who nodded simply, before Catherine walked off quickly.

She would really have liked to get to talk to Greg before the whole thing started, guessing that he would be too busy and too excited later on to listen to anything she was saying, but she had had no opportunity to talk to him since he had arrived in Las Vegas.

She was about to get out her phone and call him, when she stopped herself. She needed to focus on her job now.

It did not happen every day that two of her friends became parents, actually she often felt like an outsider in her line of work having a daughter. However, she knew that labor could take some time and she guessed that Sara would not appreciate it if she called Greg away from her side now. Unless Greg had not already taken flight for some Sara-related reason. Catherine chuckled when she wandered into her office.

* * *

Greg took in some deep breaths of fresh air, driving his hand through his disheveled hair. The sun was standing high on the sky by now, as hours had passed. As the doctor had told them, it could take several more hours. Sara was not in a sunny mood, as could be expected. Some minutes ago she had told Greg (maybe "told" was a bit of an understatement) to go outside and get some fresh air, supposedly because he was looking like he was about to faint.

This wasn't true, Greg thought. He was excited, yes, but he was feeling alright. Nevertheless he had left, reluctantly though, and was now enjoying the sun outside, ready to go back as soon as Sara's minimum requirement of half an hour was up. She had assured him that nothing would happen in that time span, as he had really been unwilling to go.

Greg wondered if he should call at the lab where they were probably very curious to know what was going on. As far as he knew though, of his friends only Catherine was working now. He could not be quite sure, as it had been a long time since he had worked at the Las Vegas Crime Lab. He knew that Catherine was supervisor of dayshift now, as Sara had told him.

He certainly did not want to call Catherine. This was not because he did not want to talk to her, but because he figured that he would not get off the phone so fast, if he called her. They had not talked in a while, and Catherine would probably pester him with questions not only about Sara but about himself as well.

He decided not to make any calls. It would be enough time for that once there was real news. He smiled, looking at his watch. Thirty minutes were up and he turned to walk back inside.

He found Sara almost in the same condition he had left her, but she smiled slightly when she caught sight of him.

"Half an hour already up?" she questioned.

"Sure," he replied, smiling back.

"I was kinda too distracted to notice," Sara returned and he sat down again. He kissed her lightly on her forehead, noticing that her skin was warm.

"I'm here to distract you some more."

"Awesome."

* * *

Greg laughed. He hoped that nobody who saw him thought he was getting hysterical.

Well, actually, if he was, it did not matter anyway. He felt pretty much like it. Or rather very much high. He grinned widely at anybody he met on his way and even at the door that he shoved open to get out in the cool air of the evening. People would probably realize though why he was acting like this, when he walked out of this part of the hospital.

Greg sat down on a stone post that fenced off the parking lot, relaxing for the first time in many hours. He was very excited to make calls, but relinquished in the happy moment for some minutes, before he brought out his phone, wondering who he should call first.

Finally he decided on a number and waited for his call to be answered.

"Grissom."

"Hey, it's Greg." He tried to contain his excitement. "Uh… Sara is doing alright… and so is our son." Greg grinned widely again.

"Congratulations," Grissom said and Greg thought to hear that his former boss was smiling as well.

"He's like really small," Greg explained. "I mean, he's not smaller than he should be… but he seems so tiny," he laughed. "They're getting some rest now and so I'm just out to tell everybody."

"You should get some rest as well," Grissom replied seriously.

"I will later," Greg promised, knowing he would not be able to sleep this night. "I'll go and tell the others now." They finished the call and Greg turned around to look at the hospital building, smiling again. The night was coming down on the city now, but he was wide awake. It was not his usual working time anymore, as he worked days in San Francisco, but now he was filled with happiness and excitement that did not let any tiredness come.

He was going to make some more calls, before he would walk back inside to see whether Sara was sleeping or not, and to get another look at his son. Greg grinned once again. Actually he would rather walk back inside now, but he also wanted to share the news with his friends. Smiling, he dialed Catherine's number, sure to not be let out of this conversation so soon.

* * *

Greg dropped onto the couch, shoving some of the pregnancy and baby books that Sara had read during the pregnancy from the small table in order to make some room for the food he had prepared for the small party that was to come. Sara walked into the room slowly, the baby held closely against her chest, wrapped in a blanket.

Greg smiled. He was still not used to see Sara in this role. Maybe it was because he had not seen, with his own eyes, much of her pregnancy. This thought made him sigh quietly. He hoped he would be able to see more of their lives from now on, but he did not know yet how it would work out with both of their jobs in Las Vegas and San Francisco. As much as Greg liked working there, he did not want to go back now. And he had promised Sara that he would be here. So he would be.

"What are you thinking about?" Sara asked, smiling and sat down next to him, before she opened the upper buttons of her blouse as well as her bra and started feeding their little son. It seemed to work really well and Greg was amazed, so that he almost forgot to answer Sara's question.

"Can't remember," he answered truthfully, still looking at the two of them. Sara chuckled.

"Nick will come a little later," she said. At this moment the bell rang and Greg stood up with some reluctance, making his way to the door. He opened and was immediately pulled outside by Catherine.

"We need to talk," she said.

"We did talk lately, you know," Greg replied hastily.

"I didn't want to talk about it on the phone," Catherine made clear. "Are you in need of a job?"

Greg looked at her even more confused than before. "Uh, I have a job, but-"

"Are you interested in a CSI 1 position on dayshift?" Catherine asked openly.

"How-?"

Catherine waved impatiently. "I have only two people on my shift. Vegas's getting crazier every day. It can't work this way."

Greg's thoughts were swirling. "But Ecklie-"

"- didn't like it that there were so many people on graveyard. But you wouldn't go back to graveyard." Catherine smirked. "And besides, let that be my worry. I'd be your boss after all."

"I work days and Sara works at night?" Greg questioned.

"Of course. Do you want the job or not?" Catherine wanted to know and Greg muttered something about ultimatums.

"I want it, of course," he stated finally. He wanted to stay here with Sara and his son. He needed to. He wanted to.

Catherine nodded. "Good for you."

She walked past him now and pushed the front door open. Greg could hear her calling out to Sara and the baby and he followed her into the apartment, smiling widely.

**The End**


End file.
